Senate sends plan to end record-long DHS shutdown back to House

• The Senate took action by voice vote, with most lawmakers out of Washington on a scheduled recess. It mirrors what the Senate proposed and passed just last Friday.
• House Republicans last week quickly rejected the idea of taking up the Senate-passed bill, with members of the House Freedom Caucus railing against it and Johnson calling it a "joke."

Yes, but: Republican leaders announced Wednesday that the House is now on track to pass the Senate deal and end the shutdown.

• Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement that they plan to fund ICE and CBP through reconciliation, a budget process that only requires Republican support.
• "In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The big picture: The contentious DHS shutdown, which has wreaked havoc on air travel over the last few weeks, could now end without either Senate Republicans or Democrats budging substantively in negotiations.

• Republicans' decision to use reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP cut out the need to make concessions to Democrats to secure their votes.

• And Democratic leaders held the line, refusing to give Republicans their votes to fund all of DHS without concessions from the White House on reforms to immigration enforcement.
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that GOP leaders "have come to realize that we will never bend the knee."

What's next: Arm-twisting still could be needed to get the measure through the House.

• "What a joke," one GOP lawmaker told us of Johnson's reversal on the Senate bill.
• Johnson hasn't decided whether he will call lawmakers back to Washington from a two-week recess that began Monday.